infoTECH Feature

March 28, 2011

HP Advances Seismic Sensing Capabilities with Shell

HP has announced that the company has jointly developed inertial sensing technology with Shell so that seismic data can be shot and recorded at much higher sensitivity and at ultra-low frequencies.

A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock or change in velocity. By deploying many of these detectors as part of a complete sensor network, HP will enable real-time data collection, management evaluation and analysis.

Increasing prospects for discovering greater quantities of oil and gas to meet the world's increasing energy needs, the new onshore wireless seismic acquisition system is designed to provide a clearer understanding of the earth's subsurface. The sensing technology has now been demonstrated to have a noise floor of 10 nano-g per square root Hertz (ng/rtHz). This is said to be a measure of the smallest detectable acceleration over a range of frequencies.

“This new sensing milestone is the latest step in the collaboration between HP and Shell, which is on track to produce a leap forward in onshore seismic data quality to improve the exploration risk evaluation and decisions, illustrating the industry-wide benefits that can be achieved through cross-company innovation," said Rich Duncombe, senior strategist, Technology Development Organization, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

When an earthquake occurred in the Gulf of California during the testing period, HP was able to compare the seismic response of the new sensor side by side with a USGS reference sensor at the test facility. Verifying the sensor's response at low frequencies, the signal from the reference sensor was matched by the new sensor down to 25 mHz.

In other company news relating to HP gadgets, HP announced a new netbook priced at just $299. The Mini 1103 weighs a mere 2.78 lbs and features a 10.1 inch LED display. HP QuickWeb offers browsing without booting up the computer and the nearly full-size keyboard and touchpad make for easy operation. The Intel (News - Alert) Atom processor is available up to 1.83 GHz and Bluetooth, WLAN and HP Mobile Broadband are all available.


Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Janice McDuffee
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